Some new details in the Coppell, Texas murder-suicide have emerged that show the mayor’s life as having taken a turn for the worse shortly before she put a loaded pistol to her 19-year-old daughter’s head and pulled the trigger, then ended her own life. The contents of suicide notes she left, including a DNR request and provisions for her pets, have been released, as has the fact that she was under investigation for misappropriation of funds.

When first reported, the murder-suicide was painted as a tragedy rather than a crime, which, as it turns out, doesn’t sit so well with all Coppell residents.

Thomas Burrows, of Coppell, thought that the decision made by the city of Coppell to lower the flags to half staff was a big mistake, and inappropriate:

“From what I heard on one of the talk shows this morning, we’re the laughingstock of the D-FW metro area right now. If we want to go through closure, put the flag back up and let’s move on.”

A number of commenters on the Dallas Morning News website denounced the soft touch for the child killer, prompting Coppell City Manager Clay Phillips to go on the defensive, saying:

“We’re not honoring a murderer. We’re recognizing the fact that our mayor… the head of our government… has passed.”

A few years back David Brame, the Tacoma chief of police killed his estranged wife and himself right in front of his children in a parking lot during a handoff. While some people called the incident a “tragedy,” there was absolutely no suggestion that the police or public should publicly mourn David Brame’s death, even though he had claimed to be a victim of domestic violence on several occasions (click this link and scroll down to see his sister’s version of what went wrong), so in some ways was a more sympathetic figure than Jane Peters. Needless to say, the incident prompted even more punitive legislation against men in Washington state.

Although some Texans are appalled by Coppell’s decision to honor a murderer, the attitude behind the choice is reflected in certain comments on WFAA’s website, in which a few women go so far as to declare she wasn’t a real murderer. Some of the comments hardly seem serious, but I’m pretty certain that they are.

Here are a couple of the choice quotes:

Why would anybody want to judge and call her a KILLER of her child. Just think of what they must have been going through to see no other way out. How dare anybody bash these ladies–How dare!! Sick critiziers! You should say a prayer for them—better yet—why not HELP them BEFORE this tragic ending. Don’t throw stones—–and if they lowered the flag – GOOD – she was the mayor after all – not a killer, just an ordinary people in trouble in this troubled economy. They probably did not have the money for the daughter to attend UTA either. It is sad, but no one’s business now that they are gone. I say we have lost two lovely ladies to our economic downturn.

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I’m amazed at how judgemental most of these comments are – no open minds here as to the mental illness involved. I can’t call Mayor Peters a murderer, simply because “she was in a place in her mind that wasn’t reality”. I cannot hate someone in so much pain. NEVER JUDGE other’s, especially in a case like this. I’ve “read the rich, the political, the killer, MOTHER – shouldn’t be honored by her own city/friends by lowering a ‘CITY’ flag – not American, or Texas flag. I can’t help but feel the anguish and pain she was going through, and feel sympathy for her. LOOK @ the picture, Jayne’s eyes are empty/fearful, Corinnes clear/happy.It is not what it seems in my i\opinion. The men who went on the crime spee that killed an elderly woman, an innocent truck driver, and injured others – are MURDERERS – Mayor Peters was something else – not evil – but desparate – insane. To me there’s a difference, even though I know she killed – the agony of killing her daughter (if she did) surreal.

Notice how the woman who killed her daughter is the true victim in these comments (there are others). One holds up an example of true “murderers” — men, of course. Have that many American women truly lost all sense of right and wrong?